Equality Tasmania and LGB Tasmania to fund new billboards

LGB Tasmania, which opposes medical transitions for people under the age of 18, claimed it has booked another billboard in the Launceston area for July, after the one it funded in Hobart last month generated criticism from trans rights activists.

The billboard, which read 'Let Kids Be Kids', was located on the Brooker Highway in Glenorchy.

It was slammed as an assault on trans rights by Equality Tasmania, a group that advocates for allowing children to independently affirm their own gender identities.

In an update on its Facebook page over the weekend, Equality Tasmania announced a campaign to fund a month-long advertisement at the same billboard promoting "positive messages" about the trans and gender-diverse community.

"Trans and gender diverse Tasmanians have been attacked from a billboard in Hobart's northern suburbs," the post read.

"Join Equality Tasmania in showing support for trans and gender diverse people. Help us broadcast affirming and life-saving messages from the same billboard."

On the Givenow site, Equality Tasmania had raised $5919 by Monday morning, but chief executive Rodney Croome said about half of that had been raised for an earlier campaign.

He said LGB Tasmania's billboards were sending the message that trans and gender diverse young people don't exist or are misguided.

"It's frustrating that a group purporting to represent lesbian, gay and bisexual people continues to raise money for these billboards," he said.

"Not only because of the deep damage its campaign inflicts on trans and gender diverse people, but because the campaign absorbs limited resources that should go towards improving the lives of lesbian, gay and bisexual people."

He said the billboards funded by Equality Tasmania would contain "positive and affirming messages" about transgender people, including 'Let transgender kids be themselves' and 'Save lives, Support transgender kids'.

Jessica Hoyle, spokesperson for LGB Tasmania, said her group has now funded another billboard in Kings Meadows in Launceston, and is hoping to raise money to fund another in Burnie.

Ms Hoyle said she hoped the billboards would raise awareness of Tasmanian policies that she claimed harm children by allowing the use of gender-affirming hormone and medical treatments.

"All the research is saying that puberty blockers are harmful to children - why are we giving them to children?" she said.

She said allowing gender transition at an early age did not allow children the time to understand the consequences.

Children should be supported in who they are, but not encouraged to medically transition, she said.

"If Equality Tasmania have a problem with safeguarding children, we need to look at what's behind Equality Tasmania."

She said the group has launched another campaign on fundraising site MyCause, where she previously raised the $7000 used to fund the Glenorchy billboard.

Launched over the weekend, the new MyCause campaign has raised just $25 of its $25,000 target.

In response to that low figure, Mr Croome said: "I'm glad to see LGB Tasmania has not had much success with its fundraising campaign."

"If its planned billboards go ahead there are legitimate questions to be asked about where their funding comes from."

The battle of the billboards represents a clash of two different approaches to children experiencing gender dysphoria - a condition where individuals express distress due to feelings of a mismatch between their gender identity and their biological sex.

According to a statement from the National Association of Practising Psychologists (NAPP), the 'Affirmation Model' involves supporting the child's gender identity and offering rapid gender transition with the use of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones.

The other approach is a more cautious model that emphasises psychological counselling and exploration of gender identity before making any decisions about medical intervention, according to the NAPP.

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